Transport from Eleftheroupoli, Kavalla, Macedonia, Greece to Treblinka, Extermination Camp, Poland on 04/03/1943

Thus, on March 4, 1943 Bulgarian troops, police and officials rounded up more than 4,000 Greek Jews in Thrace and Eastern Macedonia and detained them in tobacco warehouses. The responsibility for the operation was given to the representative of the Comissariat in Kavalla, Slavcho Yonchev and the local police commander, Asen Trifonov. Unlike places with large numbers of Jews, in Eleftheroupoli and Thasos the Jews were arrested only by the local police. Sixteen Jews resided in Thasos and five in Eleftheroupoli. They were immediately sent to Kavala and detained together with the local Jews in a tobacco warehouse belonging to the Comercial Company of Saloniki. Upon arrival, they were searched for money and valuables. Everything found on them was confiscated by the authorities. The deportees stayed at the assembly site for several days before they were transported by truck to the nearest city with a train connection – Drama. They were then sent to another assembly site in Bulgaria – in the southern city of Gorna Dzhumaya. The journey was long and there were two train transfers on the way – in Sidirokastro and in Simitli – because of changes in the track gauges. The last piece of information we have refers only to the Jews from Eleftheroupoli. On March 10 those arrested during the general operation and seven others who were found later passed through the Simitli train station. There is nothing in the sources regarding the deportees from Thasos who were also sent to Gorna Dzumaya....